Remember last year when many fans were calling Auburn’s wins against Georgia and Alabama ‘flukes?’

CBSSports’ Bruce Feldman asked Auburn offensive coordinator Rhett Lashlee whether or not his players are motivated by the ‘flukish’ turnaround and two ‘flukish’ wins against Georgia and Alabama.

Q: How much do you think your guys are motivated by hearing some people try and say some of what happened last year was ‘flukish’ and that it was some sort of one-year wonder and they want to prove these guys are here to stay on top of the SEC?

Lashlee: I think they’re motivated by that. I think they’re motivated by being so close and not finishing. You feel like you had an opportunity to do something more special than people thought you could do and we didn’t just finish it the way we wanted. There’s the motivation in that in and of itself.

I don’t get too caught up in “flukish” and I don’t know that our guys do. It takes some breaks to get to the national championship game. Doesn’t matter who you are. Obviously, the catch at Georgia is the one everybody thinks about, but after that, I think we had some breaks go our way, but I think we earned a lot of what we got.

They’re more motivated than anything about, when you get to that stage–on the biggest stage that there is and you experience it and you’re so close and you feel it, and then don’t put your best foot forward and end it the way you could have, I think that’s the only motivation that our guys really need to get back and try to seal the deal.

Do you think Auburn had a nice last month of football?

Nick Marshall’s 73-yard tipped touchdown pass to Ricardo Louis with 25 seconds left to help the Tigers in their path to win the SEC was dramatic. This would have been the school’s best play in the history of their program, but it wasn’t even their best play of the month, because of Chris Davis’ ‘Kick-Six’ return off a missed 57-yard field goal with one second remaining.

Lashlee’s right: it does take breaks to win the SEC, let alone get in the national championship picture. They happen during championship seasons. Remember Jarvis Moss’ blocked field goal against South Carolina? It just so happened Auburn had two in one month.

You know who else should be motivated about Auburn’s finish? Georgia and Alabama.

Photo Credit: Shanna Lockwood-USA TODAY Sports

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COMMENTS

not just a lucky year: Auburns plans and execution, Missouri’s success with no name roster, Alabama’s battle with the feeling of entitlement, Emotion at LSU, South Carolina’s well planned saturdays, Mississippi’s ? about which team will be the leader, Florida’s defense leading it’s offense, Tennessee’s attendance, Arkansas’s running game plan

I certainly commend Lashlee for acknowledging the luck that played a part in Auburn’s success last year, whereas some coaches would try to claim their team “just made the plays they needed to win” or some BS coachspeak like that. I also completely agree that luck plays a part in every championship run. With just the tiniest bit of more luck, UGA could have played for the BCS one or more times over the past decade or so.

This is why fans shouldn’t get so focused on the last team standing. The best season may actually be from a team that had 9-10 great wins and some bad luck on a couple other Saturdays. Appreciating quality requires fans to think a little but thinking is it’s own reward. The college athletics world is a mind bending of collection events. In many sports and divisions. Having officiated college basketball, coached college soccer, and played in more, I still get wide eyed attending new spectacles like 2014 Missouri volleyball setting the record going undefeated in the SEC. Yes, Georgia fans should appreciate all those outcomes you are thinking of, and I think Georgia fans do think a little deeper than a lot of fan communities and that is ‘their’ own reward. Looking forward to that fun following showing back up in Columbia, Missouri this fall.